Howard Lorenzen, W7BI

Long-time IARC member Howard O. Lorenzen, W7BI passed away peacefully on
Wednesday, February 23, 2000. A funeral service was held today (2/26/2000).For
many years, IARC on-the-air operations such as Field Day were done under the
callsign W7BI. He will be missed as both a friend and fellow amateur radio
operator. - Posted Feb 26, 2000

On June 26, 2010 the US Navy christened the
missile range instrumentation ship USNS Howard O. Lorenzen in Pascagoula,
Mississippi. This vessel is named in honor of Howard Lorenzen, W7BI, (1912-2000)
who is widely credited as being the “Father of modern electronic warfare.”

Lorenzen began his Naval Research Laboratory (NRL) career in 1940 after
leaving Zenith Radio. He got his first taste of electronic countermeasures when
he unintentionally jammed the signal of radar being tested at the Lab’s Radar
Division. As the US entered World War II with the attack on Pearl Harbor,
Lorenzen’s research focused on developing electronic means to detect, locate,
jam and otherwise deceive enemy radar and other electronic locating equipment,
ushering in a new era of warfare to benefit US military countermeasures.

As the war progressed, Lorenzen, assigned to the Lab’s Special Developments
Section, continued to expand on the idea of electronic countermeasures, or ECMs.
He worked to develop radio detection and recording devices to defeat guided
German missiles. He analyzed the control signals sent to Henschel 293 flying
bombs and used the information to disrupt or distort their radio command
signals.

During the 1950s and throughout the Korean and Vietnam military conflicts,
ECM technology was advanced by Lorenzen and his team of engineers. They
developed new techniques and systems of electronic signal interception and
signal source location, which included direction finding, recording, analysis,
jamming and deception of high-frequency signals. It was Lorenzen’s project
engineer and prodigy, Jim Trexler, who first started calling Lorenzen “Father.”
Trexler was the first to reveal that terrestrial radio signals reflected from
the Moon could be intercepted back on Earth using a giant parabolic antenna. An
immediate outgrowth was the Navy’s Communication Moon Relay (CMR) system, “moon
bounce,” that provided our Navy with satellite communication a decade before
artificial space satellites were operational.

In the mid-1960s as Cold War tensions were ramping up, Lorenzen inspired his
team to again think of new, innovative means to thwart enemy attacks on US
military targets. In September 1966, his branch was upgraded to division status
and Lorenzen was named superintendent of NRL’s new Electronic Warfare Division
with the chief role of developing advanced guided missile defenses for Navy
aircraft and state-of-the-art electronic warfare (EW) components for the USS
New Jersey.

In 1976, after being retired for several years, Howard and Etta Mae moved to
Bellevue, Washington to be near their daughter and grandsons and he obtained the
call W7BI.

Amateur Radio was rewarding to Howard and he gave generously in return. He
was a life member of the ARRL and wrote numerous articles for QST. Over
the years Howard Elmered many hams and generously lent his expertise to many
radio clubs and organizations.

Howard became a Silent Key on February 23, 2000 at the age of 87. The
Issaquah, Washington ARC obtained permission from his family to acquire his call
sign, W7BI, for club use, so his legacy lives on. - Excerpted from ARRL
article "Navy Honors Electronics Pioneer Howard Lorenzen, W7BI" (link) by Lynn Burlingame N7CFO.